My favorite, favorite, favorite, and the greatest comedian that could ever exist if you could Frankenstein a comedian together, would be one part Richard Pryor, one part Peter Sellers. That would be the greatest comic actor. Keegan-Michael Key More Quotes by Keegan-Michael Key More Quotes From Keegan-Michael Key There's a sketch where we're playing two terrorists in a cave, and my terrorist is very frustrated as to why we haven't flown a plane into a building in 13 years. Keegan-Michael Key frustrated two years Ricky Gervais changed our lives. And Mitch Hedberg, who we're like, "Oh, that's funny to me on a level I don't think I understand. But I'm clearly pleased by it beyond something that my brain's figured out." He was amazing. Keegan-Michael Key levels brain thinking My adoptive mother tirelessly worked most of her life to build up my self-esteem. So what happened was finding her started to shed light and destroy my mythos. So for the first year of knowing her, my mom kind of actually literally visited me in Detroit and kind of gave me a tour of my life - where I was conceived, where I was born, where she found out she was pregnant. It was amazing, Terry, and very emotional. Keegan-Michael Key mom self-esteem mother I grew up watching British television because I lived so close to Canada. Keegan-Michael Key canada grew-up television You hold precious what you create for yourself in your life that makes you comfortable. Keegan-Michael Key comfortable I'm racist against non-black people. Keegan-Michael Key racist black people You can not have comedy unless people are behaving badly. You can't have it. Keegan-Michael Key behaving-badly comedy people If you take something like the slave-auction sketch, the warmth of the light gives it a crisp 12 Years a Slave look. And your eye tells your brain, "I should be taking this seriously." Keegan-Michael Key light eye years When you're a child, the most important thing is to be able to live a life of comfort. You want to be sure that the moon goes up at night and the sun comes up in the morning and dad comes home from work. Keegan-Michael Key dad morning children The audience loves to figure things out. They love it when a performer leaves a trail of bread crumbs for them, and they get to participate in the comedy. Keegan-Michael Key crumbs comedy bread Being a melting pot is what I think is great about being American, and also that we get to do something that other people don't get to do, we get to be a hyphenate. That's a good thing. Keegan-Michael Key melting people thinking If I could just get over my issues of wanting people to like me. Keegan-Michael Key people To make an absolutely gross generalization, I think a lot of people feel like if you're mixed, more often than not you're quote unquote white. So if you're mixed, you embrace the mainstream culture more than the African-American culture. Keegan-Michael Key mainstream-culture white thinking I'm adopted, so I didn't know my father, but apparently he was pretty tall. Keegan-Michael Key adopted knows father For me, as a child, I certainly thought that there were more black people in the world than white people. Keegan-Michael Key white children people When you say to somebody, "I'd like to recommend a book to you," you're typically talking to a person who is willing to learn, grow, or change. Keegan-Michael Key book Everybody puts on airs, regardless of race. Keegan-Michael Key race air It was very important thousands of years ago to categorize things. I can eat that plant, I can't eat that plant. Or this tribe, not that tribe. We don't have to do that anymore - we have processed food now! Keegan-Michael Key tribes important years A poet can feel free, in my estimation, to write a poem for himself. Or a painter can paint a painting for himself. You can write a short story for yourself. But for me, comedy by its nature is communal. If other people don't get it, I'm not sure why you are doing it. Keegan-Michael Key stories writing people The fact of the matter is, you can't do comedy unless someone is behaving badly. Otherwise, it's not a comedy. Keegan-Michael Key comedy